The BlackBerry Z10 recently saw price cuts in the
United Kingdom that were far more generous than the round of price cuts for the
phone in the United States. Despite being launched in the UK at the end of
January, the phone can now be obtained free on contract at Carphone Warehouse
with service on any of the major carriers. In the US, the Z10 is $100 on
contract through Verizon and AT&T, or for $50 with service through providers at Best Buy.

With the dismissal of BlackBerry's US sales head Richard
Piasentin, BlackBerry failing to meet analyst expectations for smartphones sales, and the annual shareholders' meeting in which one
shareholder characterized the launch of the phone a "disaster," Blackberry is
making a concerted effort to push these phones into the hands of hopeful
customers. However, is the Z10 the best phone — BlackBerry or otherwise — for you and your
company?

The case for the Z10 & BB10

My colleague at TechRepublic, Patrick Gray, has a much more in-depth look at the BlackBerry Z10 and the new BB10 operating system that it runs.
The Z10 is something along the lines of a "great leap forward" for BlackBerry
(formerly RIM), as they try to reinvent themselves to compete with the new age
of smartphones ushered in by the iPhone, as opposed to the older business-class
smartphones running Windows Mobile. The Z10 isn't the most powerful phone on
the market, but BlackBerry's corporate image lends itself readily to a
fine-tuned, optimized phone for the hardware it does have, in contrast to
bleeding-edge Android phones with razor-thin profit margins.

The transition to BB10 has been somewhat bumpy. The
BlackBerry PlayBook was initially promised to receive an update to replace
BlackBerry Tablet OS with BB10. Despite the shared heritage of the QNX platform
acquired by BlackBerry, the PlayBook update has been cancelled. Yet BlackBerry is betting the company on the success of BB10; telecommunications is
what BlackBerry does, and they aren't in a position to dump their phones below cost
and sit on their laurels selling printers.

A closer resemblance to a classic BlackBerry

BlackBerry users tend to be somewhat inseparable from their
keyboards, and the sales of the BlackBerry Z10 seem to bear that out. If you're
a BlackBerry diehard looking to retain the tactile response of a physical
keyboard while moving to the new BB10 operating system, the BlackBerry Q10 is the device tailored to your needs. The Q10 launched in the US on
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile in June, and a version for Sprint is rumored to land
later this month. The Q10 is available from Verizon and AT&T for $200,
though at the time of this writing, Wirefly
offers the Verizon version for $100.

Would you like to super-size that?

Rumors of a potential successor to the Z10 have been flying around for months, and with the price reduction of the Z10, the prevailing wisdom has
been that BlackBerry is trying to move unsold stock to make room for a
successor to that phone. The rumored successor, known internally as "Aristo"
appears to be preparing to hit the streets later this year as the BlackBerry
Z30, which is anticipated to have similar specs to the Z10, but with added
power to drive the 5", 720p screen. If you're the type of user who fancies the Samsung
Galaxy Note II (sans stylus) but are looking outside the Android ecosystem, the
BlackBerry Z30 is quite likely worth the wait.

Final thoughts

Although BlackBerry is, by all appearances, committed to
BB10, the downside to these devices is the nascent ecosystem, and in
particular, BlackBerry's late start to the game. BlackBerry is in a fair position
to compete with Microsoft's Windows Phone products, though the license model of
that platform means a wider variety of phones on the market. The tepid response
to Windows Phone works to the advantage of BlackBerry, but building a healthy
platform ecosystem takes a growing user base, time, and money.

The Z10 is a fantastic deal if you're not squeamish about
being on the frontier in a new ecosystem; being an early adopter is always a
bit risky. If you're comfortable in that position, don't require a physical
keyboard, and have neither the desire, hands, nor pockets large enough to
accommodate a much larger phone, the Z10 is a solid choice.

What are your thoughts about the BlackBerry Z10 for personal and business use? Share your opinion in the discussion thread below.

About James Sanders

James Sanders is a Java programmer specializing in software as a service and thin client design, and virtualizing legacy programs for modern hardware. James is currently a student at Wichita State University in Kansas.

Full Bio

James Sanders is a Java programmer specializing in software as a service and thin client design, and virtualizing legacy programs for modern hardware. James is currently a student at Wichita State University in Kansas.